Question 1

Wait, the verb for "to die" is morir, so shouldn't "it died" be morió?

Accepted Answer

Good catch! But morir is an "-ir" verb that has a stem change in the preterite (completed past) tense. For these special verbs, in the third-person forms ("he/she/it" and "they"), the o in the stem changes to a u. That is why it becomes murió.

Question 2

If "died" is murió with a u, does it use a u in the "I" form ("I died") too?

Accepted Answer

No, the stem change for these specific "-ir" verbs in the preterite only happens in the third person. "I died" keeps the original o and is simply morí. You only use the u for "he/she/it" (murió) and "they" (murieron).

Question 3

Why does the sentence use del niño to say "the boy's"?

Accepted Answer

Spanish doesn't use an apostrophe "s" ('s) to show ownership. Instead, you say "the bird of the boy" (el pájaro de el niño). Whenever the words de (of) and el (the, masculine) are right next to each other, they always combine to form the single word del.

Question 4

Why is there an accent mark on the first "a" in pájaro?

Accepted Answer

In Spanish, words that end in a vowel naturally put the spoken stress on the second-to-last syllable. Without the accent, we would pronounce it pa-JA-ro. The written accent pulls the stress to the first syllable (PA-ja-ro). Any Spanish word stressed on the third-to-last syllable always gets a written accent mark to break the normal rules.

El pájaro del niño murió ayer.

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